An excellent publication here on Switzerland's heroin experiment:
It is abundantly clear that the US's "War on Drugs" has been a destructive, dismal and abject failure. To say it has backfired is an understatement and of course, the real losers are regularJoes trying to get by. Meanwhile hypocrite politicians and society's elite are snorting it up faster than the down-and-outs are inhaling crack and injecting filthy, badly cut heroine.
The fact is, everyone knows how badly the War on Drugs has gone wrong, yet the US government won't hear a word said against it. For reasons that are frankly depressing, disturbing and a testament to the fundamental lack of democracy in that country.
Drug treatment programs such as those that occur in Switzerland work and the benefits are huge. Cuts in crime, lives restored, communities able to live and thrive without fear. I would like to see a situation where this policy could come to Britain without America losing its rag. Sadly, when Scotland made overtures towards the Swiss model, America became so heated about it and so concerned about the impact on its precious war on drugs, it threatened sanctions.
I have an idea that goes further than the Swiss model on drugs.
If we could have the cajones to tell America to mind its own business, the UK could really solve the massive problems it has with drug related crime, addiction and health problems. I'm talking about taking the drugs trade away from the dealers and making the State the one, big one-stop shop for all drugs, Class A downwards. This would not be in support of drugs, quite the opposite. The State would aim at, on the one had, treating addicts and getting them off Class A legally and safely and on the other, would be able to monitor, educate and facilitate drug users for non-class A, so that instead of going to dealers, they would go to specially licencesNHS outlets where they would get their drugs legally.
This sounds utterly wreckless and outrageous, except it reality, it's completely sensible.
Drugs have been around since year dot. People can't be stopped making their respective decisions on drugs and the harder the State tries, the more people are criminalised and the drug dealers able to make massive profits. Why are we turning these scum bags intomillionaires ? It's ludicrous. And when they are caught, inevitably another gang or individual dealer steps in the vacuum. If the State has control and all drugs are decriminalised and monitored under theNHS , the dealers would be put out of business overnight and drug related crime would crumble because everyone would know you could legally get your drugs (albeit under differing circumstances) via the State.
This would be morally sound, because the State is not telling you what to do and enabling freedom of choice, whilst providing maximum help for people who want to get off the habit. This involves individual responsibility and choice, which is only right. Ironically, it is only the State that can provide this freedom, because the alternative is: people left on the streets to die, suffer, lay in the gutter homeless, whore themselves out, get involved in gangs and criminality and to remain on the fringes of society.
People all know the health implications of drugs. It is rammed down peoples' necks every day. If lack of education was the reason people took them, there would be zero usage. The fact is, people still make that choice. I believe under the never-to-be-implemented plan I propose, usage would actually decrease. Think about it...hardcore users would be completely saved from their hideous vice by treatment programs and recreational users would either get cheap drugs from theNHS, or probably not bother because it's just not that cool anymore.
It seems a win-win situation. And of course, the taxes and levies gained from it would be enormously helpful in funding the schemes and helping pay for the health service. Naturally the going rates would have to be lower than regular street values to undercut the scum bag dealers, who would be reeling from their loss of trade. And naturally they would be rather useful, unwitting aids to the program, because their seized coke would be tested and approved for controlled vending by the State.
If we are to fairly balance freedom of choice and freedom of the individual with ensuring a safer, happier and well-run society, then this idea is far better than the current load of bollocks on offer, which has shown itself to fail miserably time and again. Decriminalise all drugs; let the State take ownership of the supply, demand and treatment.
Written by John Demetriou in October 2007 at the Boatang & Demetriou wordpress blog.
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